Please note in advance: "The Great Cow Race" is the second part of a continuous story. This could have been announced in the run-up more clearly for example as box labels "Bone - Part 1" and "Bone - Part 2", so that customers know, what they are getting into. Normally I'm not a friend of stories that are split into several parts and the two Bone episodes could have been published as well as one single title regarding the gaming length. Apart from that I am certainly pleased that Telltale recognized the adventure potential of the Bone comic with its strong characters and its wacky story and converted it with so much sure instinct. Now read my review of the second part of the beautiful Bone adventure.

What happened so far:

Not to spoil it for those, who havn't played the first part yet here's only the most necessary information about the past events: Bone and his cousins Phoney and Smiley have lost their way far from their home when they were attacked by a swarm of wild insects.They had to flee and lost sight of each other. They had to find home to Boneville on their own, each seperated from the others. On his journey Bone became acquainted with the most different beings, who could often bail him out. But there were adversaries too!

Who were the evil creatures, that pursued him persistently? Why did Bone seem to have a guardian angel in the big red dragon that always stood by?

In the first part we could already slip into the roles of Bone and the permanently bad tempered Phoney, who both met again while looking for a farm where Bone finally met Smiley too and the young Thorn, falling in love with her immediately. But soon serious problems occured, because poor Bone threw away his chances with Thorn by his awkward behavior as a start. But that was by far not all, because another disaster happened on the farm and seemed to be somehow connected to Bone and his cousins. What was the target of the pursuers? The three cousins, all humans or even all creatures? Regardless Thorn's strong grandma didn't loose heart and decided to visit the fair again this year, to take part in the great, traditional cow race. Of course a lot of tasks and adventures were waiting for Bone and his cousins here. That should do for now as small description. In any case the second part is longer and has a more complex plot then Bone 1.

How's it continued?

Following the comics, Telltale has worked through chronologically so far. "Out from Boneville" was the first and "The Great Cow Race" the second of quite a few original comic issues. With the end of the second part the story is by far not finished. Bone 2 either ends abruptly and according to that it leaves the most important strands open, so that it should be clear that this wasn't the last episode of Bone. By the way Bone will now get German, French and Spanish sub-titles. Thus there is no more reason for German players to elude from the really amazing series.

Graphics

Of course the graphics style of the first part was maintained. It's relatively simple but nevertheless marvelous. For example the characters are a bit more square-edged than more expensive games. But that is not dramatic, because they simply look beautiful and were marvelously animated. Espacially Bone himself with his cute movements. While running or during close-ups of Bone's nice and diverse facial expressions, it always shows how dear and detailed the game is designed. During dialogues there are many view changes, always switching between the interlocutors like a perfect comic film. Even minor actions, for example Fonebone smelling a flower, taking or moving something, are presented by small animations. Different from many other adventures, where an object is lying around and then taken somehow like ghost hand by your character.

If Bone or one of his cousins starts to move, the three-dimensional backgrounds often move too. They group harmoniously with the characters and result in a homogeneous overall view. Nothing to criticize. Just the opposite. Bone 2 has a larger gameworld and backgrounds are even more detailed than the first part.

Handling

The menu looks insignificantly different (I believe at least), handling resembles "Out from to Boneville" exactly. That either means, it's just as practical and problem free. There are the usual point&click controls with an icon changing cursor, depending on the selected hotspot. The icons are clear: Feet stands for walking, eyes for looking and there are two or three more options. Most of the time you can choose from two possiblities with the right mouse button. An object can though be examined but also be used. The usual procedure thus. Who hasn't understood it yet, can visit the tutorial as an option before starting the game. Each time we use a new function, a short explanation appears at the beginning of the game. Nice, isn't it?

At the bottom of the screen there are further icons. The one on the left opens the inventory. On the right side there are two icons. One to access the menu, with the other one you can get direct hints.

That's it, almost. Perhaps I should mention the fact that the menu contains the most important functions and you can adjust music, speech and soundeffects individually, fade in sub-titles, as well as skip dialogues with spacebar. There are ten saveslots, which should actually suffice, as the game isn't too complex. Actually a good comic adventure game doesn't need more functions. I would have wished however, to be able to mark the saveslots individually, since you often don't know, where you've saved your last game.

Puzzles

There are of course inventory-based puzzles and other original tasks. For example Phoney must sweep footprints in a bar, but people keep coming in and produce new traces. The bottom line is that this puzzle doesn't depend on speed, but on removing the right footprints before new ones show up.

But there are also some differences to the predecessor, because the degree of difficulty was overall tightened and the puzzles are not so obvious any longer. And finally we control Smiley too, but that could be expected, after we were not allowed to play him in the first part as the only one of the three. Besides we now sometimes must change between the characters independently, as for example in "Day of the Tentacle", to solve riddles. I think, this is a good change and leaves much freedom to the players while accomplishing tasks.

The game often continues only if everything is done and you've talked with everyone extensively. "The Great Cow Race" is again very heavy on dialogue. At this point allow me to refer to the extensive linguistic repertoire of the characters. If you click repeatedly on objects, you get (around four or five) different answers instead of standard phrases each time. You can only go on with the game after quite extensive conversations. And they depend on selecting the correct branch from the large, nonlinear dialogues, to get your hints and be able to carry on with the story. We even can switch to another interlocutor during a conversation.

There are again some little action sequences. Bone must complete for example a ball game in Moorhuhn-style on a fair. The degree of difficulty is again moderate, what might meet the requests of many pure adventure gamers.

Sound

The musical score consists of a multiplicity of tracks, some are based upon Country-/Folksongs and therefore fit very well the rural farm ambiance. Other tracks remind a little of old slapstick movies and those too are working fine with the comic graphics. So the music always fits very well, sets accents and adds the right dynamics to the individual sequences.

The voices are not only precisely articulated, but match the characters very well, ahead the striking voice of Bone. All voice overs are clearly spoken, which is surely very helpful for German players. Apart from that Telltale is going to provide subtitles in a little while.

Result

Finally we have got great comic adventures with Bone1+2. Part 2 is a very charming game too and transports the unique atmosphere of the comics very well. By the way, that's why I think that Telltale is the right company for the coming up Sam&Max successor too.

The first and rather short part seems to be the foretaste only, a kind of appetizer, as "The Great Cow Race" offers substantially more locations, a longer playtime and has also more story. The relative simple graphics are easily countervailed by the level of detail. The dialogues are equipped with subtle word joke and the right hint of humor, so that I had a lot of fun. And that is, honestly said, unfortunately not really succeeded in the few comic adventure games, which were published recently. I'm thinking for example of Ankh or Tony Tough.

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